Darl, Gerard, Anastasia, Daniel

[jawildey]

Gerard, speaking to Brother Tobius, says "Ok then, now we need to figure out how to proceed from here. If the Shade is still here is there any way to defend ourselves, the people, and the town? Also we don't know if he has any friends around as well. I'm thinking this might be a good time to get everyone back together, exchange information and figure out our next course of action. What do you think Brother Tobius?"

"The others are on their way, I'm sure. Your dark friend there had me send guards for them. I'm sure they are safe." Tobius responds to Gerard. "We're also searching the town for any intruders. I'm sure if someone is out there one of my priests or guards will find them. If the shade got what he wanted from Father Malaki, however, my guess is that he moved on in pursuit of his quarry."

Daniel and Anastasia arrive during Gerard's conversation with Brother Tobius, Daniel just a few seconds or so ahead of Anastasia. Brother Tobius turns at each of their arrivals to give them a courteous nod. Tobius sends their guard escorts back outside to help with the detail guarding the doorway and steps back to allow room for Anastasia and Daniel to enter the room if they choose.

Darl, unseen by Gerard, Anastasia or Daniel, pockets three items off of the floor by where he's sitting: two stones and what appears to be an ivory cross. He hopes to find the stone that Tobius was using to fight off the demon, but he's unsure exactly where that ended up in the mess without doing a more thorough search. Brother Tobius looks his way just as he pockets the second stone, but Darl can't tell if he was caught or not. In either case, Tobius says nothing to him about it as he turns to greet Anastasia. Darl also eyes the foot long stone rod laying off to his right that he saw from his vision, but it's too far away from where he's currently seated, and, due to its size, would be difficult to hide away without being seen.

As Daniel and Anastasia look into the room they he notice that the boxes that were not so neatly stacked around the room the night before have been toppled onto the floor in an even bigger mess than before. The desk has been thrown into a corner where it lays on its side, splintered and fractured. Papers and objects litter the floor.

Father Malaki's body lies on its back in the middle of the floor with coagulating blood pooling around him; remnants of the debris from the battle soak up what blood they can as if trying to restore the room to its prior state by consuming that which befouls it. The old man's body is bruised, beaten and cut in multiple places. Deep, parallel gouges run down the middle of his bare chest as if made by a clawed hand. Daniel and Anastasia recognize these as the same wounds that they have seen in the past. Anastasia from the man the day before, and Daniel from multiple bodies he's found over the past weeks.

Dried blood covers Malaki's entire torso as it flowed from the cuts. His torn robes lies in a heap next to the desk. The pants he wore underneath are bloody and shredded; the remnants clinging unnaturally to his body. One hand lays stretched out next to him across a pile of papers.

[Manson-Mage]

Daniel walks up to the door of the office and notices the desk tossed around papers thrown a. His body laying in a pool of his coagulated blood , clothes ripped off , pants barely on his body tathered and clinging to his flesh by the blood . Daniel's eyes then notice the claw marks along his chest , one hand streched out covering a pile of papers .

Daniel walks in the room , steps up to the body , " I seen these marks before . Looks like the old man gave up a hella fight before meeting his end . " Daniel looks up and at everyone in the room , " Anone have an idea of how things went down here ? "

Daniel steps back out of the way and notices Darl sitting next to a pile of boxes , figiting with things abit .

" Darl you hyper active or you always lookin like a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs ? "

[giggles]

As Anastasia enters with her friends and the guard, noticing everything in a disarray, "Wow. Whats going on here with all these papers and stuff? Are you looking for something in particular or what?"

She patiently waits for an answer and then comments to the group and Brother Tobius, "Have you found anything out yet as to what has happened in this murder of Father Malaki? It seems he was sorting thru papers as well but now its all over the place and the desk moved?

the towns people are not being to responsive and I'm sure were very much unwelcomed as they were very short and to the point and stand offish as you can ask The Redeemer. So I don't think were trusted for one and two, I think we need to make this fast and see what can be gathered up to both show them we had nothing to do with the murder and 2 whatever or whoever did this may come back when we least expect it ..so I know full of questions but we need to hurry and figure out things I'm sure you all would agree and scatter as soon as we can. All we need now is the town have an uprising against us and then not be able to deal wit this "demon" or "demons" that are causing this destruction."

Anastasia waits and looks at Darl and asks "What is it you were needing so we can help you as soon as possible as well"

[jthorson]

" Darl you hyper active or you always lookin like a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs ? "

Darl hears Daniels question, and slowly stands, leaving his position on the floor. "I'm sure I have no fricken clue what the hell you're talking about ... But if, in your screwed up existence, there is anything even remotely hyperactive about meditation, well ... You go with it, cowboy!"

Anastasia waits and looks at Darl and asks "What is it you were needing so we can help you as soon as possible as well"

Choosing to address the more sensible question, given the circumstances, Darl turns to Anastasia. "We now know that both Father Malaki and the guards outside were murdered by a demon ... More specifically, a Shade, and a rather unique one at that. I was able to go look back and determine this much, but would like to view more, to try and determine why they were killed. I asked you back here, because the process is rather draining, and i need some assistance with the casing."

"If you're able to help, I'd like each of you to lend me some energy for the spell ... And once done here, we can cast again outside, to try and see which way the demon left, in an attempt to pick up it's trail."

[Manson-Mage]

" Darl you hyper active or you always lookin like a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs ? "

Darl hears Daniels question, and slowly stands, leaving his position on the floor. "I'm sure I have no fricken clue what the hell you're talking about ... But if, in your screwed up existence, there is anything even remotely hyperactive about meditation, well ... You go with it, cowboy!"

Daniel laughs and looks at Darl ," My screwed up existence , try living on earth before the coming of the rifts . Now thats screwed up ... As for the help in the mana drain .. Sure , why not . As long as it helps in what we need to know . As for the shade, those damn things are a pain in the ass to kill .. i have had a few run-ins with them . Not nice either .. Can't tell which would be worse , shades or hunters and hounds . "

Daniel walks over to a blank space of wall or doorfram and leans against it .

[jawildey]

Jordan and the Redeemer crowd their way into the now cramped office as Darl and Daniel finish their exchange. "So, exactly what do you need us to do?....or more specifically, how much energy do you need from each of us?"


{OOC: I haven't dealt with ritual spell circles much and there's not a lot of information on how exactly it works, so I play it one of two ways depending on the circumstances 1) Each person donates a specific amount of energy as a one time transfer; or 2) Each person in the circle meditates on the task at hand and energy is drawn in equal amounts from each person in the circle. Each person can then drop out at any point when they've given as much as they're willing or able to and the others pick up the slack. I'll leave it up to Darl to suggest how he would like the group go about it.}

[Manson-Mage]

As Daniel leans aginst the wall area , he looks down at the body and studies how he is laid out .
Daniel takes a deep breath and realizes that Malaki's hand is covering some papers . He walks over lifts his hand gently and pulls the papers out from underneth his hand . While Daniel holds up his hand , he quickly examines it for bruising . After he finishes examining Malaki's hand , he carefully lays his hand back down to the ground and turns his attention to the small stack of papers . Daniel walks back over to the empty space of the wall , leans against it taking another deep breath and starts to look through what these papers may reviel.

[giggles]

As Anastasia takes a look around the room still listening to the answers to her questions and seeing if theres anything she can notice that may have been overlooked, she tells Darl, "Well that is quite interesting , I mean about the demon being a shade and all..that makes this even more interesting and even more that we need to get those answers as quickly as possible. On that, I will give you as much as I can to help.
Anastasia prepares herself now to help Darl.

[jthorson]

OOC: For spell circles, my typical interpretation would lean towards option two, with the exception being that they either participate in the casting or not (i.e. no dropping out in mid-cast). One could always drop out between spells, of course.

[jawildey]

OOC: My interpretation is generally the same. I offer option 1 because there seems to be a separation in the rules between just donating PPE and doing it as a circle. As far as dropping out mid spell, I agree with you on that point. The caster has to have the PPE available first before he can cast the spell. Go ahead and post to the group what Darl expects of them. IE. Respond to Jordan.